Beto O’Rourke Blasts Fellow Dems as ‘Lazy’ and Weak, Slams Schumer for ‘Surrendering’ to Trump
Beto O’Rourke accused the Democratic Party of getting too “lazy” and “enamored” with “blue wall states” while he also blasted Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) for “surrendering” to President Donald Trump.
O’Rourke, a former Texas congressman who unsuccessfully ran for Senate and the governor’s office, joined MSNBC’s The Weekend on Saturday and laid into his own party and its current leadership. O’Rourke argued Democrats have ignored red states to their own detriment.
He argued:
I really believe you’ve got to show up everywhere. You’ve got to fight on every front, and you’ve got to be there on every single community that is under attack. I think our party has unfortunately gotten lazy and over-enamored with seven so-called battleground or blue wall states to the detriment of Alabama and Mississippi and Texas and Louisiana. I mean, those are our fellow Americans too. And I don’t blame them for saying, hey, the Democratic Party has not been showing up for me, listening to me, fighting for me. So when this pollster asks whether the Democratic Party represents my values, what the hell do you expect me to say?
The party’s current leadership, he added, is “just not getting the job done.” O’Rourke praised those setting up marches and protests against the current administration.
Co-host Eugene Daniels pressed O’Rourke further, asking whether Schumer or House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) should step down to make room for others. O’Rourke accused Schumer of surrendering to Trump and close advisor Elon Musk by choosing not to oppose a continuing resolution in March to keep the federal government funded. He argued Schumer should have opposed it on the grounds that Trump and Musk had “decimated” government agencies through DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) cuts.
“[He] lost the only leverage we had, that unity, and surrendered to Trump and Musk,” O’Rourke said. “The battle line in the Democratic Party right now is not between moderates and progressives. It’s between those who are going to fight and those who are going to surrender. And if you’re not going to fight, get out of the way.”
Schumer has defended hit vote on the CR against Democratic critics, arguing a government shutdown would have been “to times worse.”
“[Trump and Musk] get to determine what is essential,” Schumer said. “And they could just decimate the whole federal government, and that’s what they wanted to do.”
Watch above via MSNBC.
